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West Ham's NZ woes deepen with Syd FC loss

English Premier League club West Ham suffered their second loss in as many games on their New Zealand pre-season tour with a 3-1 defeat to Sydney FC on Saturday in a friendly in Wellington.

The victory comes four days after Graham Arnold's Sky Blues were thumped 4-0 in Dunedin by the EPL's Newcastle United.

But despite the victory, Arnold said he was happier with the way his team played in Dunedin.

"I felt we played better against Newcastle - I think the performance was excellent except we got punished for our mistakes," he said.

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"But it gave us an opportunity to correct some mistakes which, against weaker opposition, we could have maybe got away with.

"The boys tightened up a lot more today defensively and I thought it was an excellent performance.

"That's what I'm looking at - performance more than result."

Ahead 2-0 at halftime against the Hammers, Sydney added a controversial third 18 minutes into the second half when Corey Gameiro capitalised on a hand-ball, missed by the referee, to slot home for a brace.

It was West Ham's second loss in three days, after they were beaten 2-1 by Wellington Phoenix in Auckland on Wednesday.

Sydney proved lethal on the counterattack, their first goal coming after three minutes as Ali Abbas found Gameiro with room down the left.

The 21-year-old striker made the most of his chance to slot home under sprawling goalkeeper Adrian San Miguel.

West Ham were forced to shuffle their back four when Guy Demel tweaked a hamstring and was replaced by Aaron Cresswell at left-back after 13 minutes, while Joey O'Brien switched to the right.

The Hammers' woes at the back continued, Sydney extending their lead on 25 minutes when Bernie Ibini broke upfield and lofted a well-placed ball through for Alex Brosque to power home.

West Ham continued to press, but couldn't finish the few chances they created, Stewart Downing working hard for little reward while winger Matt Jarvis was under-utilised.

It took barely five minutes after halftime for West Ham to hit back and reduce the deficit.

Jarvis cut in from the left, his venomous strike from just outside the box taking an unlucky deflection off Sydney skipper Nikola Petkovic to loop over keeper Vedran Janjetovic.

Gameiro picked up his second after 63 minutes in controversial circumstances, referee Nick Waldron missing Terry Antonis' hand-ball early in the build-up.

Gameiro finished his surge down the right when he rounded the keeper with precision, but the blunder by officials in the build-up left West Ham players incensed.